SPRINGFIELD -- Someone who has been robbed, shot and wrongly arrested should not be required to post $25,000 bail too, Abdiel Cruz-Diaz's lawyer argued Wednesday.

In fact, the 19-year-old Puerto Rican native and refugee from Hurricane Maria is unemployed and cannot afford any bail, defense lawyer Judy Cox explained in Springfield District Court.

"He's only been here a couple of months," Cox said.

Cruz-Diaz and David Lopez, 33, of Springfield, were arrested late Tuesday after police responded to a reported armed robbery on Girard Avenue.

They found Cruz-Diaz at Lopez's home with a gunshot wound to his arm. But after interviewing both men and finding a loaded, 9mm Taurus handgun in a bedroom shared by three children, police arrested the pair on firearms charges and three counts of reckless endangerment of a child.

Wearing a hospital gown, Cruz-Diaz appeared in court Wednesday to be arraigned along with Lopez.

Assistant District Attorney Frederick Burns said police believe the shooting took place inside the home, not during a robbery on the street, as Cruz-Diaz claimed.

Cruz-Diaz provided no description of the assailants, and Lopez was evasive and uncooperative when questioned, Burns said.

The gun was found unsecured under a bag of clothes on a closet shelf, according to Burns, who said several 9mm rounds were in the magazine and one in the chamber.

He requested $25,000 bail for both defendants, citing the potential sentences each faces and the danger posed to children in the apartment.

The gun "was readily available and could have been grabbed by a child with, in the words of the officers, potentially catastrophic consequences," Burns said.

Cox said her client had no criminal record and no idea a gun was in the home. "He didn't own the weapon. He has never had a weapon," she said.

Lopez's lawyer, Anna-Marie Puryear, said her client is an employed father of five children with only a few motor vehicle charges on his record.

She questioned the legality of the police search, and said prosecutors would be hard pressed to prove that Lopez knew about the gun.

"The case is ripe for a motion to suppress," she added.

Judge John Payne set bail at $2,500 for Cruz-Diaz and $5,000 for Lopez.

Both defendants are due back in court for a pretrial hearing on July 13.